Tag Archives: Lotion

Your face does a lot of work during the day and could use a little love at night. Try caring for your complexion with an all-natural, antiwrinkle cream! This cream is formulated to benefit a mature face with wrinkles, but it can help any skin look younger longer.

Though an optional ingredient, bentonite clay is important for its ability to absorb and remove toxins, heavy metals, impurities, and chemicals. It can do all this because it carries a strong negative charge that bonds to the positive charge in these damaging substances. As bentonite clays draws toxins, it releases minerals for the skin to absorb. Bentonite clay also pulls excess hydrogen from skin cells, allowing them to admit oxygen. Bentonite clay can be found at your local health food store or online. If you do use bentonite clay, be careful to not let it touch anything metallic, or it will lose its effectiveness.

Do you have a first aid kit in your home or car? First aid kits are great to have on hand when a little emergency presents itself. But wouldn’t you want to have your essential oils available too? The Oils to the Rescue First Aid Kit combines the basic supplies you need in a standard first aid kit. It also allows space for adding essential oils and customized products that you’ve prepared for common ailments and injuries.

First Aid Coconut Oil Soothing Balm Recipe

This soothing balm is specially formulated to have antiseptic, antimicrobial, analgesic (pain-relieving), and antibacterial properties. It soothes and moisturizes the skin and works well for all first aid injuries, including children’s boo-boos.

This recipe yields 6 oz. So, if you use 2 oz. salve containers, you can keep one at home, take one on-the-go, and give one to a friend. Or, you could host a make & take class and send your attendees home with their own 1/4 oz. salve jar of balm.

Instructions:

Once the beeswax is melted, add the coconut oil. Remove from heat when melted, and add the melaleuca, frankincense, and lavender essential oils.

Slowly add witch hazel to the mixture, using a hand blender to combine. Blend on high for a few seconds until well incorporated.

Spoon the cooled cream into sealable glass containers. The salve is ready to use. It should go on smooth, and you can expect a waxy, balm-like texture. To avoid contaminating the cream with stray bacteria, try not to touch it directly with your hands. Instead, use a cotton swab or clean tissue to apply it to a wound.

So many of us use lotion every day, but many of the commercially available lotions contain ingredients that could actually be harmful to our bodies when used daily. Skin is very porous and absorbs just about everything put on it, so it’s best to use lotion made of natural ingredients. And the best way to know what is in your lotion is to make it yourself!

This lotion recipe is really simple to make. First, melt your hard oils (cocoa butter, beeswax, and coconut oil). Then add your soft or liquid oils (sweet almond oil, fractionated coconut oil, and jojoba oil). Finally, blend together the water and oils until the mixture emulsifies. You’ll hear and feel a change, but keep blending to prevent the water and oil from separating later. Watch the video at the end of this post to see how simple this lotion is to make!

The best part about making your own lotion is that you get to customize the scent! Essential oils make that really easy. You can simply add your favorite essential oil or blend, or you can add oils that help with specific health issues. Whatever you choose to create, this lotion makes a great base because it is simple to make, absorbs easily, moisturizes well, and feels so luxurious!

Instructions:

In a double boiler, melt cocoa butter and beeswax pellets over low heat. Once melted, add the coconut oil, and continue heating until almost melted. Remove from heat, and stir until everything finishes melting.

Using a hand mixer, start beating water, and slowly add the oil mixture while continuing to beat. Keep beating for a few minutes. As you blend, you will hear a change and feel the lotion thicken. Let stand for a few minutes. If lotion separates during this time, continue to blend it again for a couple more minutes. If it doesn’t separate, then it has emulsified properly.

Mix in the essential oil.

Pour lotion into a plastic zip-top bag. Snip off a corner of the bag, and squeeze the lotion into your container of choice.

To use, pump a little into your hand, and massage into the skin as needed.

Give your sore muscles some relief with this salve. The essential oils in this recipe may not only help soothe muscle pains, but they also create a warming/cooling effect that makes this salve extra special!Continue reading →

The Week of Wellness classes at the Eleve™ Event Center continue, and this post is from the “Lotions and Potions” class taught by Tamalu Watkins, an experienced massage therapist and essential oil user.

Lotions and Potions

Topical application of essential oils is a great way to apply oils, since the skin absorbs the oils quickly. Using lotion as your base for applying oils not only allows you to create custom blends that will last longer with fewer oil drops, but it also ensures that the oils are properly diluted for those with sensitive skin or children.

Making the Lotion

Making your own lotion is easier than you might think, and, because you made it, you know what you are putting on your skin.

One thing people often worry about when making their own lotion is if it will go bad (i.e. rancid or moldy). According to Tamalu, to prevent your lotions from going bad, just make sure all of your equipment and dishes are clean, your hands are clean, and you are using fresh ingredients.

Tamalu provides a great lotion base recipe in her brochure Basic Body Cream. She lists the specific oils she uses but also mentions that you basically need 4 oz. of hard oils, 6 oz. of soft oils, and 9 oz. of distilled water. You will need about 45–90 drops of essential oils for the whole batch.

During the class, Tamalu shared with us her method and tips for making lotion. Start by heating water on the stove in a pan. Next, measure the hard oils (oils that are solid at room temperature such as beeswax, cocoa butter, coconut oil, shea butter, and mango butter) into a glass measuring cup. Tamalu suggests measuring by weight with a scale because this allows you to have a consistent end product each time you make a batch and also allows you to make substitutions easily. Melt the hard oils by placing the glass measuring cup in the pan of simmering water, stirring often.

While the hard oils are melting, measure out the soft oils (oils that are liquid at room temperature such as jojoba oil, sweet almond oil, grape seed oil, sesame seed oil, avocado oil, sunflower oil, shea oil, fractionated coconut oil, or olive oil) in another glass dish on the scale. NOTE: You do not want to melt these soft oils with the hard oils because it can really change the soft oils. For example, if olive oil is heated with the beeswax, the olive oil takes on a smell that will be difficult to mask.

Once the hard oils are melted, add the soft oils to the hard oils. Mix together until blended, and gently warm just until the oils have mixed together. Remove the oils from the heat.

In another glass measuring cup or medium glass bowl, pour in the right amount of distilled water. Place the glass dish in the simmering water, and warm until lukewarm to room temperature. NOTE: Only use distilled water! The minerals in other water can cause a chemical reaction when emulsified with the oils and ruin your lotion.

Once the water is warm, remove the dish from the stove, and turn off the heat. Place an immersion blender in the water, and start blending. While continuing to blend, slowly pour the oil mixture into the water. As you blend, you will hear a change and feel the lotion thicken.

When you think you are done blending the lotion, leave it alone for a few minutes. If, when you come back, you find the water has separated out, that means you haven’t blended it enough. Blend it up again if needed. If the water doesn’t separate within the first few minutes of leaving it, then it means it emulsified properly and won’t separate later.

Now that the lotion is complete, you can add your essential oils to the entire batch or spoon (with a clean spoon or wooden craft sticks) the lotion out into smaller containers before adding the essential oils.

Words of Wisdom from Tamalu Watkins

“You cannot give without receiving.” As you rub oils and massage them into others, you also receive the benefits of the oils through the contact with your hands. As you massage, add the oils AFTER the deep massage, and use a light touch to stimulate the nerves. This increases the effectiveness of the oil application.

Another way to increase the effectiveness of the oils, Tamalu says, is to put socks on after rubbing the lotion (with oils) on your feet. Water also helps “drive” the oils into the skin; so take a shower or bath after rubbing the lotion and oils on your skin.

If you tend to have dry skin, these lotions will keep your skin soft for a long while. You usually don’t have to reapply as often as other lotions unless you are trying to heal a burn or other skin injury.

We hope you give lotion-making a try because we know you will love being able to give your skin a natural moisturizer and customize your lotion to your own needs with essential oils!

About the Presenter

Tamalu Watkins is an educator, massage therapist, author, mother of 9, and grandmother of 3 healthy, happy, and active children. Nutrition, essential oils, and essential oil application have been her focus for most of the past 20 years. You won’t regret time spent learning from her years of applied study.

Are you sunburned or just feeling hot this summer? Try this lotion recipe to cool off after being in the heat—you will love how it feels! Since coconut oil and peppermint essential oil have demonstrated a low level of SPF protection during testing1, you may even use it to help prevent a sunburn.

Ingredients & Supplies:

Instructions:

Place the beeswax in a medium-size glass dish. Melt in the microwave or on the stovetop in a pan filled with an inch of simmering water (creating a double boiler). Heat until almost completely melted.

Add the coconut oil to the beeswax, and finish melting.

Remove from the heat and allow to cool to room temperature (about an hour). NOTE: You can wrap the glass dish in a towel and place it in the refrigerator (35–45 minutes) or freezer (10–15 minutes) to speed up the cooling process.Note: Some glass dishes can break if the temperature change is too drastic. Use caution. Wrap a towel around and under the dish; then let it cool first in the fridge before placing it in the freezer. The towel keeps the glass from touching anything really cold.

Once cool, add the aloe vera gel and peppermint oil, and mix together with a handheld or stand electric mixer for a few minutes until well incorporated and fluffy.